Creator and Creation: Midterm Paper

How's this for an assignment? It's a full sheet of paper (single spaced) all on its own!

"God understands himself through himself. In order to understand this, it should be known that [sc. in the operation of understanding]... the intelligible in act is the intellect in act. ... Therefore, since God has nothing of potentiality, but is pure act, it is necessary that in him the intellect and the thing understood should be the same in every way" (ST I 14.2).

"God, however, is pure act both in the order of existing things and in the order of intelligible things, and therefore he understands himself through himself" (ST I 14.2 ad 3).

In these lines, Aquinas describes the phenomenon of knowing as an identity in act of the knower (intellect) and the thing known (the intelligible). Departing from this description try to unfold what Aquinas says about the Creator's knowledge of himself and his creation:

1. Explain or describe the identity in act of intellect and intelligible. How does it relate to the description of truth? (i.e. relate it to the three descriptions of truth). Relate this understanding of truth analogously to God's self-understanding and to divine truth; negate the imperfection of created truth which is not found in the divine truth!

2. Which kind of being enables the intellect to become the other, i.e. to become informed by the "form" of the thing known? How would you relate intelligible being (ens intelligibile) to that which first falls in the intellect (ens universale)? Which relation between natural and intelligible being is found (1) in God and (b) in material things? Why would Aquinas say: "the object of the intellect is the first and primary principle in the genus of formal cause, for its object is being and truth … [and] under the truth [or intelligible being] are comprehended all apprehended forms"? (On Evil, q. 6; cf. SCG II, 98, n. 9: "the proper object of the intellect is intelligible being, which includes all possible differences and species of being"). Relate this to the description of the nature of being! Try to show that it is necessary to have a confused knowledge of the whole truth in order to know the limited participation of truth which is found in this or that thing (hint: the tree of Porphyrius).

3. This understanding of being enables Aquinas to describe God’s knowledge of the world / creation: Give a general account of God's knowledge of other things, especially with respect to the proper knowledge of everything. Try to say why the distinction of natural and intelligible being enables Aquinas to say that God is able to create (hint: On the Power of God 7.1 ad 8).

4. As a conclusion, describe the phenomenon of divine presentiality, i.e. that God is the presence of all things. Your discussion should include that there is no discursive thinking and no cause of the understanding of creatures in God (cf. 14.7; 19.5). The consequent distinction of presentiality from causality does not exclude that God perceives himself as principle of this world – why? Relate this distinction to the freedom of human beings!

[UPDATE] I'm through with subsection no. 1 of the assignment!

[UPDATE #2] The final product is available via the link on the sidebar.

Papal Letter

The Holy Father has written a letter to the bishops of the world on the subject of the lifting of the excommunications of the bishops of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Pius X. The letter comes in responce to the many vicious attacks made against the Holy Father by so many people both within and without the Church. The letter was written in German, and is available in English translation curtesy of The New Liturgical Movement: The Papal Letter; the letter may also be read with Fr. Zuhlsdorf's inimitable emphases and comments: Benedict's Letter; and finally, here is the official translation on the Vatican website: Letter of His Holiness et cetera.

VIVA IL PAPA!

For Mr. Galer

For Tom and Vince

And special thanks to cousin Dominic for loaning the outfit!

Spring!

Gaming is beautiful in the Spring...

However, this picture is from last May, so that would just be wishful thinking at this point. On the other hand, Opening Day is only 27 days, 1 hour, and 45 minutes away for the Tigers. So Spring is coming. It was snowing again here today, though.

What goes on in that head?

Feast of St. Thomas Aquinas

His undisputed mastery in scholastic theology gained him the title of "Angelic Doctor." He is one of the greatest glories of the Friars Preachers. Leo XIII declared him the patron of all Catholic Schools. He died in the Cistercian monastery of Fossa Nuova, on his way to the Council of Lyons, in 1274.

O God, through Whom Thy Church is glorified by the wonderful learning of Thy blessed Confessor Thomas and profiteth still from his holy labors: grant, we pray, that we may grasp his teaching with our minds and show it, as he did, in our lives. Through our Lord Jesus Christ Thy Son, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, forever and ever. Amen.

Today is baby Thomas's first name day! In honor of him and of his illustrious patron we had some red wine and chocolate for dessert. Holding a chocolate bar as big as himself in the arms of his godmother got quite a smile out of the little guy!

~Encyclical Letter of Pope Leo XIII Aeterni Patris (on the Restoration of Christian Philosophy), 4 August 1879.

~Encyclical Letter of Pope Pius XI Studiorum ducem (on St. Thomas Aquinas), 29 June 1923.

Not exactly a Lenten theme...

...but I just ran across a fabulous article by Jeffrey Tucker called Catholics Give the Best Parties. I'd say it's mandatory reading in preparation for a big Easter party. The spirit animating the article reminds me more than a little of that most excellent piece of literature, The Bad Catholics' Guide to Wine, Whiskey, and Song. Please enjoy thoroughly.

Tigers Prospect

Spring Break

The Symposium on the Mission of the Eastern Catholic Churches in the Life of the Universal Church and for the Modern World (Mar. 4-6) began this evening with Divine Liturgy of the Presanctified, and then a welcome dinner at the Kartausenkeller. This symposium seems like a pretty big deal, actually (here for more info); there are 17 or 18 bishops here, and about 160 attendees total.

My last class of the first half of the semester was this morning (Greek at 8:00). The sky was blue and the sun warm and bright today, so we took a nice walk and what do you know, the ducks were out! Maria was quite excited.

Here are some more random pictures. First, showing how long Thomas is getting, next to the inch-worm Cornelius. Second, our new favorite drink ever since our acquisition of a nifty immersion blender which does a great job frothing milk for cafe-lattes.

Paper Season

This afternoon I received another writing assignment, which means that I now have three papers to work on over spring break, which is fast approaching. Tomorrow I have a full slate of classes; on Wednesday I have only Greek in the morning; and then for the remainder of the week, and all of next week, we're on break. Katie is heading off to Slovakia to spend the break at a friend's home there, but the rest of us are staying put. So hopefully I'll get in a good bit of work on these papers. The topics are:

1) Trinity: relate John 5:17-20 to St. Thomas's teaching on the Trinity (especially: trinitarian persons as constituted by relation, and the real identity of relation and essence); 2-5 pages due March 16.

2) Creator & Creation: try to unfold what Aquinas says about the Creator's knowledge of Himself and of His creation; 10(ish) pages due March 24(ish)

3) Christology: christological foundations for the veneration of holy icons; 5-7 pages due April 23.

First Sunday in Lent

This morning after Divine Liturgy, we were able to make use of two nice new gadgets my parents got as birthday / Christmas presents for me while they were here. An electric griddle, which John used to fry eggs this morning, and a "stabmixer" (I'm not sure exactly what that translates into in English - possibly an immersion blender?) which has all sorts of uses, but this morning we used it to froth milk for our coffee. Thanks mom and dad!

And here is Maria again! This time with her hair a little more evened out after another trim or two.